Archive for January, 2008

When calculating your site’s ranking in search results, search engines consider several factors, one being the quantity and quality of the links pointing to your site. If you have an affiliate program chances are you have a lot of links from you affiliate sites pointing to yours. The question is how do this affiliate links affect your SEO efforts.

There are two ways affiliate sites can point to yours. The first is network-wide sites that first point to the affiliate administrator’s server and then redirects to your merchant site. The second is affiliate network solutions that directly link to your merchant site. These links help track click-through and conversion rates so that commissions can be paid to your affiliates. So if you have thousands of affiliates, you’ll have thousands of back links. However, with search engines that consider link popularity in their ranking algorithms these affiliate links don’t count for your rankings.

There are newer affiliate programs and networks that help merchants get some value from these links, but these programs do have some risk. For example, Google watches how fast new links to a site appear. They use this to detect and penalize search engine spam. If Google sees too many new links in too short of a timeframe they will penalize or possibly ban the site. Google also watches how many new links have identical anchor text. This aids them in finding what they consider to be search engine spam.

While it is important to receive credit for your backlinks, what you want to keep in mind is the quality of these links rather than the quantity. Therefore, take your time when creating backlinks, even within your affiliate sites. This way you can receive credit where credit is due and not worry about your site being penalized or banned by they major search engines.

Major search engine Google recently added a new “Quick Start Guide” to its Webmaster Tools section. It provides an easy, graphical introduction to this area of their web site, which offers useful search and traffic data to webmasters. There is no need to register or log in to a Google account before viewing the guide; it can be accessed by anyone.

The new Quick Start Guide consists of ten pages, including details on the Webmaster Tools account “Dashboard”, “Overview” section, “Diagnostics” tab, “Content analysis” feature, “Top search queries” list, and other statistics pages. It also provides information on a tool which lets webmasters know how Google’s search spider “sees” their web sites, as well as details about the “Links”, “Sitemaps”, and various other tools. The guide loads quick and doesn’t require any special download.

Upon reaching Google’s Quick Start Guide and reading the first page, be sure to click on one of the arrows at the far right-hand side of the page, rather than clicking on the “Go to Webmaster Tools” button. It may be necessary to scroll to the right before the arrow will be visible. To start using the Webmaster Tools section, it is obligatory to sign up for a Google account if one hasn’t already been registered; the registration form only asks a few questions.

Using Google Webmaster Tools is free of charge; according to Google’s website, it enables webmasters to adjust their sites to be “more Google-friendly.” It provides some types of data which cannot be obtained from a statistics system based on the webmaster’s own site, such as the keywords which most commonly caused pages of a web site to appear (but not necessarily get clicked on) in Google results.

This can help webmasters know when to improve the titles or description tags of particular pages; if a page often appears in search results but isn’t clicked on, apparently it does not look appealing enough to searchers. Google Webmaster Tools can also help them fix problems with the website which interfere with its content appearing in results. Another one of the tools lets web site administrators request that specific pages of their sites be removed from such results.

Basically, Google Webmaster Tools help web site administrators in gaining more search click-throughs for their pages, and the new Quick Start Guide gives them a brief overview of the service alongside concise instructions on how to use it.

The major search engine and portal Yahoo.com is in the process of conducting tests aimed at the integration of Delicious (Del.icio.us) social bookmarking data into their search results. This lets searchers know how many Delicious users have bookmarked a particular web page. At present, it only occasionally becomes visible in Yahoo search results. These tests appear to be part of a trend in which Yahoo purchases other popular web sites and takes steps to integrate their content with Yahoo.com functions.

According to searchengineland.com, Yahoo recently began these integration tests; when visible, a line below each search result shows how many Delicious users have “bookmarked” the corresponding pages, along with a short list of “tags” (or keywords) they have been classified with. A small Delicious logo also appears alongside this line of data. Del.icio.us was acquired by Yahoo about two years ago. Yahoo has already completed the integration of itself with another major web site it acquired nine months earlier, by integrating photographs from Flickr.com with their Image Search feature.

The integration with Delicious enables people searching on Yahoo to know the number of people who have recommended a particular web site or page, theoretically helping them to choose the better result. For example, someone could search for a news story on a particular event which happened in the past, then read the article with the highest number of Delicious bookmarks, based upon the assumption that more users would recommend the better article. It could also give searchers a somewhat better idea of how established and/or trustworthy different online retailers are, although it wouldn’t be best to use it as the only source of information for this purpose.

However, there are some potential drawbacks to expanding integration with Delicious beyond tests. Factors unrelated to the quality of web content can impact how often it is recommended, such as how old it is, what percentage of people agree with an opinion it expresses, or how many people have an interest in promoting it. Also, Yahoo is more well-known and has existed longer than social internet bookmarking, so many of its users may be unfamiliar with this concept. It remains to be seen whether searchers will find this useful or cluttered, which will be the most important of tests in determining if integration of Delicious remains a permanent component of Yahoo web search.

If you are a small business with a small budget you still need to exercise a little SEO. Here are a few things you can do that won’t break the bank, but will still provide results.

First and foremost start with some keyword research. This helps you clarify which terms will generate the best traffic for your site. You can use free tools such as Overture or Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Or you can pay a small fee to use Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery if you have room in your budget for that.

After you’ve found the best keywords you’ll need to use them. Include these keywords in your website content. Focus on putting them in your meta description and title tags. And use those words to create relevant content. Also avoid flash if you can help it and don’t forget to include alt image tags.

Use social media to your advantage. Add a blog to your site. Join Digg, delicious and Squidoo to create an online presence. Share your videos on YouTube. You’ll create credibility and people will be more likely to link to you if you’re doing something interesting.

Join Local Directories. Search engine results are based on geographic locations. As a bonus, people that perform local searches are more likely to buy a product or service from you because you’re in the neighborhood.

Remember good search engine results are due to time or money. So if you don’t have a big budget put in the time and effort to learn SEO well. There are tons of sites out there that can help you do this even though it may take a bit longer than having an “expert” do it for you. If you do have room for a small amount of SEO hiring an expert can provide extra boosts to your results, but get the beginning stuff out of the way and let them help you afterwards.

Many people that have blogs today run them using WordPress. WordPress fortunately has a few plugins that can help optimize your blog for search engines. Here is a little more information about five those plugins.

1.    SEO Title Tag allows you to optimize the title tags in your WordPress blog. Since title tags are quite important in SEO this plugin is also important. You can override a post or page title tag with a custom version as well as reverse the order of the blog name and the title making your post’s title more SEO efficient.
2.    Head Meta Description lets you add dynamic meta descriptions automatically. It uses the first few words from your post though so put your important keywords in early.
3.    The Ultimate Tag Warrior lets you include your tags as Meta Keywords in the header of tag pages and single post pages.
4.    The All-in-One SEO Pack allows you to define your home page title, description and keywords, use categories for meta keywords, avoid indexing of duplicate content and autogenerate descriptions.
5.    Google Sitemap Generator creates a Google compliant sitemap of your blog. Google sitemaps are important because they can help you get indexed by Google.

Using these five plugins can really help your blog returned higher in search engine results. But, you still need lots of unique content that is updated frequently and is relevant to your market. Otherwise Google and the other search engines won’t care how well you optimize.

A new, open-source search engine based upon the “wiki” concept has been introduced. It applies some of the same techniques and processes used in Wiki sites like Wikipedia or Wiktionary to a search engine. It went live on January 7th, 2008.

Like any search engine, Wikia search lets users enter one or more words and returns a list of websites which are related to them. However, there are a number of differences. For example, a “discuss these results” link is located at the top of each list of results; as with other Wiki based systems, it lets users start a discussion on the results to searches for a particular word or phrase.

Another interesting feature of Wikia is that an area for a “mini article” on the search keyword appears at the top of results; if an article has been created, it will appear there. Anyone can create or edit such an article, just like  wiki encyclopedia or dictionary pages. If utilized, this feature will allow users to find brief information on some subjects without using any of the websites listed in the search results.

Wikia also offers a People Search feature integrated into the web search, as well as a website rating system. If the cursor is placed over the number next to the word “Cached” below each result, a row of five stars will appear and users can click on a star if desired (based upon how well they rate the site in question).

As of January 15th (about a week after it went live), the  results Wikia provides are acceptable for some searches, but insufficient for finding information on many specific subjects. A message on the home page acknowledges this, and calls upon users to help improve the result quality. Another problem is that the site listings will not display on some web browsers, and parts of the results page are overlapped at low screen resolutions.

For the most part, websites based upon the wiki concept have strengths with regard to updating quickly and generating large quantities of content at little cost. On the other hand, wiki systems do little to reward contributors and are open to manipulation by marketers or people promoting specific beliefs and opinions.

Basically, this new Wiki-based search engine currently has some flaws which need correction (as do many sites right after they go live), but it offers an interesting alternative to typical search engines which may prove effective in the months and years to come.

One cannot expect to complete any effective SEO campaign in a matter of days, but the length individual campaigns should take varies depending upon the type and size of the web site in question. There is also a difference between the time it will take to complete the SEO work and how long it takes for its benefits to materialize.

A sales-based web site with a single promotional page to be advertised is an example of a site for which a relatively short campaign might be suitable. If there are many pages which have not been optimized for search engines and are targeted to new users, the campaign is likely to take longer. Web sites which are based upon earning ad revenue and continuously create new content may never cease their SEO efforts. For example, it could be said that a web site which keyword-optimizes each new article and trys to gain links to it on other sites has an ongoing SEO campaign.

After an SEO campaign is carried out, it should normally take several weeks before these efforts start to provide a benefit. Directories will have to approve links, and search engines have to find new links to the web site and re-spider its newly keyword-optimized pages. It can be preferable to have the SEO campaign extend beyond this time period so that the strategies which have not produced better rankings can be improved upon or replaced.

When a successful SEO campaign is completed, it is effective for a long period of time compared to most other promotional methods, but does not permanently remain as effective as it once was. After years have passed, some inbound links to a web site will likely disappear as the sites they are located on go out of business or change ownership, and search engines will have partially altered how they determine search result rankings.

Basically, the amount of time an SEO campaign should take depends upon the size and type of the web site, whether or not the site is to expand the content it offers, the skill and methods of those carrying out the campaign, and any previous SEO campaigns or promotional efforts which have been applied to it. There is an additional, relatively long period of time waiting for such efforts to take effect, after which some measures may need to be taken based upon the results.

AutoLink is a feature on the Google Toolbar which provides direct links to relevant information from various types of data on web pages, such as street addresses or ISBN numbers. It provides greater convenience to internet users, but has caused Google to come under criticism for a couple different reasons.

According to the Google website, people can use AutoLink to directly reach a tracking information page based upon a tracking number they receive, automatically retrieve a map showing the location of an address indicated on a web page they are looking at, find the history of a vehicle based on its VIN number, or use an ISBN number to directly reach the Amazon.com product page for the corresponding book.

When activated, Google AutoLink works by changing the above-mentioned numbers or text on a web page so that they appear as links and can be clicked on, thus opening the related informational page. However, AutoLink cannot do this if the text is already linked to a different page (by the operator of the website being accessed).

This can be useful in some situations, such as when a local business provides an address on its website without directions or someone receives a web-based email with a FedEx tracking number or the ISBN number of a book in it. It decreases the amount of typing and the number of steps needed to find the same information.

However, AutoLink has come under criticism from some website owners because it can direct users to competitors of theirs (esp. with regard to books) and changes how users see their web pages. One way to prevent Google AutoLink from doing this is to put the affected text within an image; for example, a business could put its address below its logo (within the same image), or a book seller can display the ISBN number of a book within the book’s cover image.

It could also be said that the AutoLink feature unfairly benefits some major websites, like Google Maps, CarFax, and Amazon, by making it easier and faster to use them than their competitors’ sites. The tracking number feature has largely escaped criticism, as it determines the correct delivery service to send users to, and covers all four major services.

The Google Toolbar is a free, downloadable browser add-on for Internet Explorer and Firefox. In addition to AutoLink, it offers a language translator, Google search box, PageRank indicator, spell checker, pop-up blocker, and other features.

Several good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) forums and message boards exist on the internet. They enable users to learn about new techniques, become acquainted with other people working in the same field, and keep up-to-date with the latest news on this subject. Read on to learn more about a few of the best, most active SEO forums…

HIGHRANKINGS: The forum of highrankings.com (use the link on the far right of their home page) has about 15.7 thousand registered users. It has separate forums for discussing SEO web design, keyword optimization, copywriting, building links, directories, good techniques, undesirable techniques, pay per click (PPC) promotion, analytics, web site coding, news, events, and various general business-related topics. There is an area where members can request others to review their web sites and make suggestions. This forum appears to be the most active of the three listed in this article.

SEOFORUM.INFO: This forum has nearly 9,500 members and it includes sections on Google, Yahoo, MSN, web directories, SEO techniques, keyword usage, links, SEO tools, PPC, affiliate programs, news, and other subjects. It also has forums where members are permitted to exchange links and buy or sell services. There is a link near the bottom of each page titled “SEO Library”; it links to a faster-loading version of the forum which doesn’t use tables and leaves out some of the extra information and statistics. Unlike the other two forums described here, the seoforum.info web site is entirely devoted to being a forum.

SEO-GUY: The web site seo-guy.com has a forum which can be reached using a link just below the image at the top of their home page. There are almost 14,600 registered members, and over 100,000 messages have been posted there (more than seoforum.info but less than highrankings.com). It appears to use the same form (in the upper far-right) for new registrations and logging in. There are individual forums for discussing SEO in general, each of the major search engines, links, tools, reviews, good web site directories to submit to, Froogle (a.k.a. Google Product Search), usability, online marketing in general, databases, and various web programming languages (HTML, PHP, CSS, etc).

All three above-mentioned SEO forums have registration forms which are rather short, which is good if you don’t like having to enter a lot of personal information. On the other hand, you can read these forums without registering, if you aren’t interested in becoming directly involved.

Google added a couple of updates to their Analytics tool last month based on their users’ wants and needs. Here is a highlight of what is new and improved.

First up is Adwords Geographical Targeting with Google Maps. This new mapping feature allows users to see targeted areas using Google maps. So if you are targeting a local client you can also see the surrounding cities. This is a great tool if you have clients that are in a different geographical area than you. It also allows you to create bundles for specific regions such as Europe or North America. The only pitfall is that some users don’t have their IP address registered in their location, so make sure you still use the city name as a keyword.

Another update is to the Google Keyword Tool. Now users can filter results, select match types at the keyword level and choose which statistics columns they like to have displayed. You can also see all the keywords on one page now as Google has combined keyword variations and site-related keywords into one tab.

A third improvement is for the Google Analytics Graph Comparison. Now you can compare more metrics such as time on site or average page views and have them displayed graphically.

While none of these changes are breakthrough developments, they are all extremely helpful. If you don’t have Google Analytics you can take a tour to see if it’s something you’re interested in at http://www.google.com/analytics.